wtf is this vote botting on the hot page

Summoner SpeII·Dec 13, 2019·12 votes·4,176 views

what can be done to fix this?

33 Comments

QuáxDec 13, 201965 votes

Nothing. The mods will do nothing. They enjoy watching 300kilo irl player for rest of their life while they work at McDonalds 9/5 $15/hour XD

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20197 votes

{quoted}They enjoy watching 300kilo irl player for rest of their life while they work at McDonalds 9/5 $15/hour XD

Insulting Riot, the community, or the mod team really isn't the best way to express your frustrations. :)

pwc2016Dec 13, 20197 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Djinn,realm=NA,application-id=6heBIhQc,discussion-id=ujj6Xjjr,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2019-12-13T18:57:07.372+0000)

Insulting Riot, the community, or the mod team really isn't the best way to express your frustrations. :)

Wow, look, another comment that's anti-Riot that has lots of upvotes. Weird.

QuáxDec 13, 20191 votes

Guy who runs the bots really dont like the mod team.

Trias000Dec 13, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Wow, look, another comment that's anti-Riot that has lots of upvotes. Weird.

I made an anti-Riot thread and got a ton of downvotes :(

blindasleepDec 14, 20192 votes

{quoted}

Wow, look, another comment that's anti-Riot that has lots of upvotes. Weird.

That's not unusual/unexpected or particularly meaningful here as it is the place we go to complain about RIOT.

QuáxDec 13, 201945 votes

That's cool.

Trias000Dec 13, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Nothing. The mods will do nothing. They enjoy watching 300kilo irl player for rest of their life while they work at McDonalds 9/5 $15/hour XD

I think we found the botter

Acemaster81Dec 14, 20192 votes

I doubt we would be able to confirm so even if one of us was a mod here (not counting the actual mods in this discussion), but it's eyebrow raising that only this guy's posts are upvoted so much here. I'll say he's fishy and move on, but that is it.

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20197 votes

The unfortunate answer is that we're somewhat limited in the tools that are built into the platform at this time. It's as irritating to us as it is to the community, and if/when we find a good solution we'll certainly consider implementing it.

QuáxDec 13, 20191 votes

At this time? Emphasize please, did you guys have tools that coulda stopped this before and don't have them anymore? This guy doing this is doing it because they hate the mods and the team that run them. Maybe if you guys didn't delete every post and comment that wasn't all sunshine and daisy and was realistic in text, we wouldn't have this problem.

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20195 votes

{quoted}Emphasize please, did you guys have tools that coulda stopped this before and don't have them anymore?

Upvoting bots have popped up here and there in the past. There are a few ways to mass upvote content, and none of them are especially easy to address.

Maybe if you guys didn't delete every post and comment that wasn't all sunshine and daisy and was realistic in text, we wouldn't have this problem.

We don't delete anything that isn't all sunshine and daisies, and never have. This time we just frustrated a much more dedicated individual/group than we have in the past, and they're taking an unusually large portion of their time to dedicated to disrupting the experience of other players.

ZackTheWaffleManDec 13, 20192 votes

The moderators don't negotiate with terrorists. These are NA boards, remember?

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20197 votes

{quoted}The moderators don't negotiate with terrorists.

I mean, the demands are also predictable:

Stop moderating content I don't want you to moderate.
Quit.

Those are the usual things we hear from people frustrated with moderation, and neither is especially actionable.

CaptainAntiHerozDec 13, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Djinn,realm=NA,application-id=6heBIhQc,discussion-id=ujj6Xjjr,comment-id=0001000000010000,timestamp=2019-12-13T19:12:37.441+0000)

I mean, the demands are also predictable:

Stop moderating content I don't want you to moderate.

Quit.

Those are the usual things we hear from people frustrated with moderation, and neither is especially actionable.

could always disable downvoting, making it you either agree with it and the post gains traction or you don't and you go next, at least until a more suitable long-term solution is found

SukishooDec 13, 20191 votes

They could but they hide behind the Main Page / Hot /ect being controlled by votes.

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20194 votes

{quoted}

They could but they hide behind the Main Page / Hot /ect being controlled by votes.

That's a reason, certainly. There are other concerns about this on the more technical side that I am not the best person to explain. It's a bit trickier than hitting a big lever saying "no downvotes."

SukishooDec 13, 20191 votes

I know a lot of technical things in forums as I help maintain one myself. It's actually on one of the more used forum platforms, so I understand a lot of that.

However, here one thing I have seen you guys say a lot on here though, that the main page, hot, recent, whatever sorter people are looking at would get all messed up because of that. Though in a lot of forums those can be set to other things such as based around views or posts that are a much better way to control those things. It's the lack of software functions that this platform here has that is the real problem and should have never been changed too. The original forums definitely had a much better format for these kind of things.

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20192 votes

{quoted}It's the lack of software that this platform here has that is the real problem and should have never been changed too. The original forums definitely had a much better format for these kind of things.

I don't necessarily disagree, certainly, but we have to work with what we have. If I could magically add features things would be very different around here! :P

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20193 votes

{quoted}could always disable downvoting, making it you either agree with it and the post gains traction or you don't and you go next, at least until a more suitable long-term solution is found

Not as easy as that, sadly.

QuáxDec 13, 20192 votes

I'm sorry are you calling me a terrorist. Lol.

ZackTheWaffleManDec 13, 20192 votes

That was a joke, but I'll take this analogy further. For the purposes of this analogy, let's refer to the votebotter as Joe.

This guy [Joe] doing this is doing it because they hate the mods and the team that run them.

So, he's holding the boards hostage with votebotting because he hates the mods and wants them to acquiesce to his demands.

Maybe if you guys didn't delete every post and comment that wasn't all sunshine and daisy and was realistic in text, we wouldn't have this problem.

And there are Joe's demands.

This is why I made the joke. In America, the powers-that-be will not negotiate with terrorists or pay ransoms (in this case, Joe's demands); instead, SWAT (or w/e) will be sent in to deal with the hostage situation.

Now, we just need to swat Joe. Anybody know where he lives?

QuáxDec 13, 20191 votes

Yea except this SWAT team(the mods) are too busy watching Brooklyn 99 or w/e the fuck. Honestly, if that were the case more power to them since that show is an absolute banger.

SukishooDec 13, 20191 votes

lol. Sorry but if they were a SWAT team, 90% of this forum would have been dead by now. More posts would have been removed in a much faster fashion, or players would have just all been banned by now for not following things. SWAT Teams are RIGHT on it when something happens, this team is on most things but there are still several that slip past them for a little while.

Edge of DaybreakDec 13, 20191 votes

At this point we need some nuclear options. It doesn’t have to feel good it just needs to stop the infection.

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20193 votes

[{quoted}](name=Edge of Daybreak,realm=NA,application-id=6heBIhQc,discussion-id=ujj6Xjjr,comment-id=00010001,timestamp=2019-12-13T19:04:32.268+0000)

At this point we need some nuclear options. It doesn’t have to feel good it just needs to stop the infection.

I'm not necessarily personally in disagreement, but I'm also not the sole voice in the conversation nor am I in as good a position as others on the team to know the technical possibilities of the various options.

ZackTheWaffleManDec 13, 20191 votes

You could have to do a captcha every time you want to vote on a post

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20194 votes

{quoted}

You could have to do a captcha every time you want to vote on a post

That's probably more on the Riot side than the Board Dev side.

ZackTheWaffleManDec 13, 20191 votes

That reminds me of a question I had: does the mod/board dev team have any way to contact RIOT about this issue? If so, have they said anything?

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20192 votes

{quoted}

That reminds me of a question I had: does the mod/board dev team have any way to contact RIOT about this issue? If so, have they said anything?

We have Riot contacts, yes. I am not the individual who would be talking to any non-Volunteer stakeholders on the coding side of things, however, and so I don't have any answer for you here. Apologies for that.

EATARIDec 13, 20191 votes

I saw it suggested on a separate thread, and it might actually be a good solution. Albeit, it would take some site modification, so it’d take a while to implement. Basically, the suggestion was to require a comment before voting. Then, if botting was to continue, a comment would be left by the bot account, allowing it to be tracked and banned. It’s not necessarily the best idea, as it has its drawbacks, but it might just work. Would that be desirable or viable?

ModThe DjinnDec 13, 20193 votes

{quoted}I saw it suggested on a separate thread, and it might actually be a good solution. Albeit, it would take some site modification, so it’d take a while to implement. Basically, the suggestion was to require a comment before voting.

Probably beyond our scope as volunteers, but I'll raise the thought to our Board Devs.